Nasdaq Drops Over 200 Points; Microsoft Shares Down After Q1 Results

U.S. stocks traded mostly lower toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping more than 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded down 0.03% to 31,825.65 while the NASDAQ fell 1.91% to 10,985.06. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.71% to 3,831.77.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1.6% on Wednesday. Leading the sector was strength from Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR and Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. HLX.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares dipped by 4.1%.

Top Headline

Microsoft Corporation MSFT posted better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter.

Revenue for the Microsoft Cloud segment was $25.7 billion in the first quarter, up 24%% year-over-year.

The company’s stock dropped 6.3% to trade at $234.85 on Wednesday.

Equities Trading UP

• Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR shares shot up 19% to $162.95 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 sales results.
• Shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. EDU got a boost, shooting 29% to $27.08 higher after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 EPS and sales results.
• ESSA Pharma Inc. EPIX shares were also up, gaining 151% to $4.3186 after the company highlighted updates results from the Phase 1/2 study of EPI-7386 with Enzalutamide At the 29th Annual Prostate Cancer Foundation Scientific Retreat.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Stride, Inc. LRN shares tumbled 30% to $32.67 following weak quarterly earnings.
• Shares of FedNat Holding Company FNHC were down 41% to $0.3576 after the company announced a voluntary Nasdaq delisting.
• ThermoGenesis Holdings, Inc. THMO was down, falling 47% to $0.12 after the company priced a public offering of 11,783,572 shares at $0.14 per share

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.2% to $88.03, while gold traded up 0.8% at $1,671.10

Silver traded up 1% to $19.54 on Wednesday while copper rose 4.3% to $3.5415.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.66%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.61% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.97%. The German DAX gained 1.09%, French CAC 40 rose 0.41% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.45%.

Loans to households in the Eurozone increased 4.4% year-over-year in September, while consumer confidence in France rose to 82 in October from 79 in September.

Economics

• The trade gap on goods increased to a three-month high of $92.2 billion in September from a $87.3 billion deficit in the previous month.
• Wholesale inventories in the US increased by 0.8% month-over-month to $921.7 billion in September.
• Building permits rose 1.4% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.564 million in September.
• US new home sales fell to a 603,000 annual rate in September compared to a revised 677,000 a month ago.
• US crude oil inventories climbed by 2.558 million barrels in the week ended October 21st, versus market estimates of a 1.029-million-barrel rise, the Energy Information Administration said.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 99,141,250 cases with around 1,093,330 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,645,760 cases and 528,980 deaths, while France reported over 36,666,380 COVID-19 cases with 156,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 633,889,150 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,586,230 deaths.